The popularity of social media has increased over the years and has made handheld portable phones a powerful communication and multimedia tool with powerful camera capabilities used in both photography and videography application. Current handheld portable devices such as smartphones and handheld mobile phones are equipped with sophisticated cameras (rear and front-facing) and a front facing touchscreen display screen for viewing live images to capture in either video mode or photography mode. A self-portrait photograph or “selfie” is accomplished by a user using the front-facing camera of the smartphone and directing the camera facing the user, while holding the smartphone in the hand at arm's length or supported by a selfie stick.
When capturing images, daylight conditions or areas that are adequately lit with artificial lighting provide the necessary lighting to capture subject at adequate exposure levels. However, in dark or poorly lit conditions, additional lighting is a necessity to provide the fill-in lighting or flash needed to capture the subject at the desired exposure levels. Most smartphones today are only equipped with a single flash making it difficult, if not impossible, to take selfies at night or in poorly lit areas. To address these sorts of lighting issues of taking selfies in poor lighting conditions, several lighting products have emerged in the marketplace including, for example, LED fill flash clips, ring-light flash, and cases with built-in LED lighting.
One such illumination apparatus for taking selfies on mobile devices is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 9,464,796, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This application generally teaches an illumination device generally that has a light source and an attachment assembly that connects the light source to the computing device. Another such lighting device apparatus for mobile devices is exemplified by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US20170324438, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This application generally teaches a mobile device case, such as for a mobile phone, which has lighted panels that fold inwardly from an edge of the case. Yet another such lighting device apparatus for mobile devices is exemplified by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US20160209025, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This application generally teaches a lighting device attachment for a mobile device having a housing that defines a cavity or an external coupling member configured to receive the mobile device, a light source within the housing, and an optical element adapted to project light from the light source to illuminate an external scene. The above patent documents generally discuss external lighting devices having external light sources and power sources that require electrical components to power and control the lighting devices such as an secondary LED flash.
One type of optical accessory for mobile devices is exemplified by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US20170026499, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This application generally describes an attachment for use with a mobile device with an imaging device or with a case for the mobile device, and in particular to a system for scanning a barcode using a smartphone and other mobile devices. Another type of optical accessory for mobile devices is exemplified by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 20160296111, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This application generally teaches an optical accessory, which can be associated with a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet, and in particular the optical accessory comprises coupling means to be functionally attached to the mobile device thereby substantially forming an ophthalmoscope.
Various illumination and flash fill devices for taking selfies using handheld mobile devices such as smartphones are known in the art as presented hereinabove, requiring electronic components and different in form and function from the present disclosure. Similarly, optical accessories for mobile devices do exist in various fields, but they are more complex in function and mechanically different than the present disclosure, and do not provide any novel solutions to the front-side illumination problems described by the present disclosure.